Augusta Dog Training and Daycare

11/25/2024

Good Advice

11/23/2024

I have the greatest job ever!!!!

On Thursday I, Nova, an 8 month, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, and her Mom met for a lesson at Home Depot.

Our goal was socialization and generalizing newly learned obedience skills to an unfamiliar location.

Nova and her Mom did great for their first field trip! Her heeling was very, very nice along with her sit to greet and recall.

We are looking forward to Nova joining us for Board and Train in February 2025.

11/13/2024

Augusta Dog Training offers training, boarding, large/small dog daycare, and grooming at several convenient locations around the Twin Cities. Join us!

11/11/2024

Traveling for the holidays or simply have a house full of guests? Call us to book your reservation for your furry friend!🐾
952-894-5100

11/11/2024

Honoring our the brave men and women who have served our Country.

On this Veterans Day 2024 we thank you for your service and sacrifice.

11/10/2024

Good advice

11/04/2024

Our Utility efforts didn’t quite go as expected but Fin had a good showing on Saturday in Open B earning a second place with a respectable score of 198.

Thank you to the judges, members and volunteers that made the Bloomington Obedience Trial a success.

11/02/2024

Separation anxiety is frequently misdiagnosed and can be a behavioral problem to fix.

Prevention is the key.

Kathryn Newman from Augusta Dog Training joined KARE 11 Saturday to offer some advice.

11/02/2024

On set this morning with Belinda Jensen and Scarlett talking about separation anxiety.

10/30/2024

Have a plan in place for trick-or-treating.

Dogs under a year of age are highly impressionable. A bad experience can stay with them for a lifetime.

Older dogs who are not well trained and guarding breeds can become highly reactive at the door.

If your dog is a social butterfly, dress them up in a fun costume and practice sit stays while you hand out candy.

For all other dogs, I recommend crating dog in a quiet area away from the front door with a stuffed Kong or another puzzle toy to distract them.

10/28/2024

“I don’t take my dog on walks because he doesn’t heel. My dog doesn’t heel because we don’t practice heeling on walks”

The premise of Joseph Heller’s “Catch 22” was about having to fly bombing raids over Germany, and the only way to get out of them was by being crazy. But the catch was that not wanting to fly bombing raids over Germany was the most sane thing anywhere.

There are lots of Catch 22 situations in riding. “My horse has a poor canter because he doesn’t do much of it, but he doesn’t do much of it because he has a poor canter.”

Or “my horse never trots up a hill because he is weak, but he is weak because he never trots up a hill.”

Or “I don’t practice sitting the trot because I bounce, but I bounce because I don’t practice sitting the trot.”

The only way to break out of these situations is to do what you can’t do until you can begin to do it. Aristotle said “for things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.”
This implies lots of failure, but it also excuses those failures as necessary components of the learning process.

10/19/2024

Something to consider.

One more reason we do not use or recommend the "gentle leader or other harnesses that come across the dogs face.

Here is the vascular system in a canine head. This highlights the enormous amount of blood flow in the dogs nose. This blood flow serves many purposes, fuels the scent chambers, aids in temperature regulation, allows dogs to effectively track, but this also makes the dogs nose incredibly sensitive to touch. This is the main reason you should not use face harnesses. There are plenty of tools designed to communicate with dogs that do not put pressure on one of their most sensitive features. I Credit this post to Grant Teeboon AKA the PawMan

10/16/2024

Friends of Augusta,

American Boarding Kennel in Burnsville also provides Animal Control services for the city of Burnsville.

Presently, we have 23 kitties in house that are in need of forever homes. This includes two litters of kittens.

All of the cats are friendly and sweet.

If you know of anyone who is looking for a cat or a kitten and can provide a loving, compassionate home, please reach out to me or Burnsville Animal Control.

10/16/2024

Loved this!

09/29/2024

Welcome to Edina, Euro!

Augusta in Edina will always have a treat waiting for you! 🐾❤️

09/28/2024

Good Advice

DISTRACTED DOG WALKERS

The distracted dog walker is commonly seen chatting on their cell phone, wearing headphones or socializing with other people while oblivious to what their dog is doing, how their dog is feeling or what is going on in the environment.

This may not sound like a problem to some, but it is something that many people have a problem with, even more so if you have a reactive dog.

I compare walking a dog to driving a car. It’s not so much about our driving skills, but having to constantly be aware of the driving skills of others – trying to predict what they will do, which rules of the road they will ignore and how distracted they are. This is especially true in the country I live in, where driving can be a stressful experience.

I understand that we often need to multi task – there simply doesn’t seem to be enough time in our day to accomplish everything we need to, but walking our dogs should not be one of these times.

Some people might say – “but my dog is really friendly, well socialized, gets on well with everyone, is well trained, knows this environment well etc. and I hear that.

But another dog might not be – maybe they need space, are reactive, are not sociable, are recovering from an illness, might be terrified of another dog racing straight towards them chasing a ball thrown from a ball launcher etc.

If distracted dog walkers have no regard for other dogs or other people, they should at least have regard for their own dogs. Walking your dog should be a time of bonding, of relationship, of seeing the environment through the eyes of your dog, of reinforcing and teaching wanted behaviours, of keeping them safe and protected from the unknown.

Our dogs need us to be focused, to pay attention, to be aware and attentive.

Our dogs depend on us to advocate for them.

09/27/2024

For 39 years I’ve been a professional dog trainer. I too, have seen this trend. And sadly, the dogs are the ones who suffer.

Having been a veterinarian for almost 3 decades, I have seen the tide of how animals are treated change drastically. When I graduated dogs were dogs, now dogs are considered to be higher ranking than people. In our crazy world, people love their dogs more than they love their own families and they treat their dogs better than they treat other humans and I am sorry to say that we are destroying our dogs mental health because of it.

It is increasingly common to go into an exam room and have a dog that is growling at me and trying to bite and the owner is petting it telling it that it is a good dog. It is NOT being a good dog and it should not be rewarded for growling and trying to bite. It is important that we train our dogs properly and we use right language with them. Never is it ok for a dog to growl and try and bite in an exam room where nothing horrible is happening to them and feeding into that behavior does not make it better for your dog, it trains them that their fear is a good thing and it is not.

Mental disorders are exponentially increasing in our dogs and it is us owners fault. Please stop treating your dog like it is some fragile child and start treating it like it is a dog. TRAIN them and teach them commands and correct them when they are wrong and stop thinking you are going to hurt their feelings if you do. Dogs are dogs, not small humans. They need training and proper instructions or it leads to horrible anxiety issues in them and I can assure that that behavior is going to hurt your feelings way more than being an adult and training your dog to be a good dog instead of a spoiled child.

The following are a few copied excerpts from an article that I read this morning from a dog trainer. I feel like there are a good reminder for all of us on exactly what are dogs are and what they need.

"Your dog is a dog, not a human child. Constant unearned affection is a killer and creates an unhealthy addiction for both dog and owner. Your dog will love you unconditionally but will never respect you unless you give it reason to.

The most basic of basics, your dog must learn how to be still in any situation. If your dog can’t be still around any distraction, you will never have control.
Recall
Sit
Down
Walk nicely on leash
Out, meaning release anything in your mouth

You MUST have a language dedicated to your dog that your dog can learn by you being consistent and applying meaning to the words you use. Your dog MUST know what yes means, but also MUST know what NO means. If nothing comes after those words, yes equals reward for good, no equals correction for bad, your dog will never give meaning to either. Your dog’s name is not a command, or correction. NO should not be your dog’s middle name.

The training starts the second you bring the dog home."